CHICAGO -- Aaron Rowand never got a victory lap.Traded less than a month after the 2005 World Series to the Philadelphia Phillies as part of a deal for Jim Thome, Rowand, one of the key figures of that Chicago White Sox title team, said he's been to U.

CHICAGO -- Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, the architect of Chicago's greatest rebuilding project since the Great Fire, is understandably very optimistic on the team's long-term future, as he explained once again in a news conference Tuesday.

CHICAGO -- Patrick Sharp wouldn't mind ending his career with the Chicago Blackhawks just as Paul Konerko did with the Chicago White Sox.Sharp, who has been with the Blackhawks since 2005, said Tuesday he's appreciated Konerko's loyalty to the White Sox.

CHICAGO -- Paul Konerko has played in six All-Star Games and a World Series and was an MVP of an American League Championship Series. Yet the three games he played this weekend against the Kansas City Royals may have been the toughest of his career.